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Mandrakesoft to acquire Conectiva

Mandrakesoft, the European Linux leader, today is announcing a definitive agreement to acquire Conectiva, the South-American Linux leader. All details for this new acquisition are available in the press-release below.

Paris, France; Curitiba, Brazil; February 24th , 2005 - Mandrakesoft,
the number one European Linux company, today announced a definitive
agreement to acquire Conectiva, the number one Linux company in Brazil
and Latin America. This acquisition is expected to increase
significantly Mandrakesoft's size and R&D capabilities.

Conectiva, founded in 1995, employs 60 people and has offices in
Curitiba, São Paulo and Manaus, Brazil. The company had 1.7 million
EUR (2.2 million USD) of revenues in their latest fiscal year, and
reached break-even during the latest fiscal half-year. Conectiva has
gained significant recognition for its adaptive approach to technology
development for corporations, communities and large partners in the
communication and technology sector in Latin America.

Providing Linux services for corporations since its inception,
Conectiva has a wide range of projects including ATM and teller
solutions for financial institutions, infrastructure for the
government, and a complete range of Linux solutions sold through major
retail stores in Brazil. Conectiva's technical achievements are also
well known in the worldwide Linux community. Among them, the RPM port
of apt-get (apt-rpm) and the new Smart Package Manager are just two
examples of Conectiva's accomplishments. In this context, Conectiva
has long been sought by larger technology and communication industry
players to develop specialized solutions, including embedded devices.

Well-known customers include public sector and large accounts such as
HSBC, Casas Bahia, IBM, HP, Siemens, White Martins-Praxair, Generali,
and the Brazilian Army, Navy and Air Force. Examples of large
deployments by Conectiva include 15,000 desktops and 800 servers in
the São Paulo public schools. Conectiva also has a strong position in
the training business, training more than 15,000 people each year
through its network of partners throughout Brazil.

Mandrakesoft, founded in 1998, is the internationally recognized
number one European Linux company. Mandrakesoft has built its business
by designing and delivering user-friendly Linux products to both
individuals and businesses, building a user base of more than 4
million users. In its latest fiscal year, Mandrakesoft's revenues
reached 5.18 million EUR (6.7 million USD) for a net income of 1.39
million EUR (1.8 million USD).

Mandrakesoft is also recognized as offering increasingly strong
business solutions in both Europe and the USA. These solutions include
server and desktop products for corporations, dedicated support,
training, and online services such as Mandrakeclub and
Mandrakeonline. Mandrakesoft's customers include such prestigious
corporations as Carrefour, France Telecom, HP, Macif, Total, Verizon,
and many government agencies including several French ministries.

Mandrakesoft is acquiring all shares of Conectiva for a total amount
of 1.79 million EUR (2.3 million USD) in stock.

Both Mandrakesoft and Conectiva are profitable companies. The
resulting corporation will benefit from several synergies by sharing
development resources, commercial prospects and larger economies of
scale, resulting in improved development potential for both
companies.

"This merger is a great opportunity for Mandrakesoft and Conectiva. It
is clear that it will strengthen us by creating commercial and
technological value", said Jaques Rosenzvaig, CEO of Conectiva. "The
merger also positions the resulting company as a leading worldwide
provider of Linux."

"Combining the two businesses enables us to extend the scope of our
offering and address more businesses by compounding development and
commercial assets, resulting in strong synergies", added François
Bancilhon, CEO of Mandrakesoft. "Mandrakesoft and Conectiva are
dedicated to delivering innovative and quality products with a high
level of personalized services to our customers. Our aggregated
strengths will enhance extensive deployments, thus providing greater
opportunity for continued expansion."

Conectiva's acquisition is in line with Mandrakesoft's strategy to
expand through both organic and external growth. Besides the
commercial potential to address the Latin American market, the choice
of Conectiva was strongly based on the cultural fit which exists
between the two companies.

Mandrakesoft and Conectiva are both founding Members of the Linux Core
Consortium (LCC), which has recently started development of a common
implementation of the Linux Standard Base. The combined companies will
build their next corporate releases on top of the LCC implementation.

The company was founded in 1995 and is the pioneer in the distribution
of Linux and Open Source in Portuguese, Spanish and English for all of
Latin America. Besides customized Linux distributions for the Latin
American market, Conectiva develops a series of products and
additional services directed at the market demand for Open Source
Tools, consulting services, training and technical support, including
books and manuals. The company is also sought after its highly
regarded OEM programs, application ports and training kits.

Mandrakesoft is the publisher of the popular Mandrakelinux operating
system, one of the most full-featured and easy to use Linux systems
available. The company offers its enterprise, government and
educational customers a complete range of GNU/Linux and Open Source
software and related services. Mandrakesoft products are available in
more than 120 countries through dedicated channels and also from
Mandrakestore.com, the company's online store. Number 1 in several
countries, Mandrakesoft has won many awards for quality and technical
innovation. "Born on the Internet" in late 1998, Mandrakesoft has
offices in the United States and France. Mandrakesoft is traded on
Paris Euronext Marché Libre (ISIN Code: FR0004159382/MLMAN; Reuters
code: MAKE.PA) and the US OTC market (stock symbol MDKFF).